K1,Red and Yellow
Flying to Tasmainia for pickup on 13/10/2010
Might not be some people's favourite but I'm going to ride it across Oz.
See how it goes...
Sounds like a late model engine is the go, which model is best for donor Donk?
I'm going for a towbar/trailer, no luggage on this sleek machine....

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I don't know about swapping the engine but those early K-bike engines were pretty good candidates for turbo charging. IINM, Lufty and maybe San Jose were into that technology back-in-the-day and thier suppliers is still around building Beemer turbo systems.

Of course, with a turbo there'll be even more heat to roast you legs and private parts but who cares?

Well, turbo technology has moved on since off the shelf kits were available, so unless you want a period piece, you'd be better off rolling your own.

Start with replacing the stock injection with an aftermarket system such as Megasquirt. Then find an appropriately sized turbo. Build a custom exhaust and intake to make it all fit. You'd probably need intercooling - that'll need to be hidden in amongst the fairings also. Or you could use water injection to cool your intake charge instead.

Then tuning, lots of tuning.

If this is all do-able then you'll have to consider what the extra power is gonna do. Will the driveline and suspension handle it? What's the final drive ratio?

All do-able and there's lots of info out there. All it takes is time and money. You'll probably end up with a slower, more expensive bike than what you could buy from the showroom, but it'd be a unique machine for sure.

Take lots of pics and post 'em here. In the meantime, check this guy's effort:

There are a few nice looking K1's on Ebay right now, and not much action on them. Given how cheap decent K100's are, I think even a very good K1 is hard-pressed to push much over $4k. It's seems like the rare black ones command a noticeable premium over the red or blue.

K1...no chance! Race pedigree? How so? All show, no go! A friend of mind was a president for BMW motorcycles (not in the U.S.) when the K1 was being built. They had such a hard time selling them that all the corporate bikes that the reps were riding were K1's.

At best an oddity that will appeal to a limited number of BMW enthusiasts, IMO.

The HP2 Sport might have a shot as a future classic, especially if it turns out to be the last and greatest high-performance boxer sport bike. Since it's doubtful they can push the existing boxer to much more power than the HP2 Sport, this might be the ultimate.

Attached Files:

Dr Curve claims that he use to out run Hyabusa's on his K1 IF they had a bit of head wind or hill. He claimed that Busa's would slowly be out pulling him but some wind or a hill would make them back shift to fifth and that is when he would get ahead. Personally, I think you are nuts seeing who can go better at 150mph+. Even in Texas!

IME, ALL non-German fork chrome pits like a mofo. Showa's do it too! They all do it except for that magic German chrome.